Random Musings

Having not kept up with the news much on Maharashtra elections, I was speaking with this knowledgeable friend, who knows it all.

“It’s an interesting election season this time”, he started. Patil, who has been a loyal NCP leader for years, was not given a ticket from his constituency.
“Oh, that’s so sad”, I replied.
“No, no.. they gave the ticket to Patil’s son.”
“Ah, then it’s fine. So Patil Sr is not contesting and it’s a passing of the baton in the family then, right?”
“Arre no, let me complete. Patil is now contesting from a different constituency!”
“Oh wow, I said. So the loyalty of all these years was rewarded by the party in offering him his own seat for his son, and also giving him another for himself. So nice of the party.”
“No, no.. you are getting it wrong. He is contesting on the other seat on a BJP ticket”
“What? After all these years, he is leaving the party, and also there is a rift in the family, where his son contests on NCP ticket and he joins BJP to take another seat?!”
“You are not understanding anything and just jumping to conclusions”, my friend remarked! “Patil is still in NCP only but while he was denied a ticket by his party, the BJP have given their ticket to him on a different seat.”
Thoroughly confused by this Patil saga, I let it be and shifted to another question.
“Hope Sathe is continuing to fight on the saffron flag as he has done for years..”
“Yes, yes, of course. He continues his allegiance to Balasaheb..”
“Okay, good to hear that. I presume Udhav will make an appearance to support his campaign..”
“What are you saying?? Why would Udhav do that? Sathe is contesting against Udhav’s party..!!”
“But didn’t you just agree that he’s under the saffron flag and with blessings of Balasaheb..”
“Of course, I said that. But that’s the real Shiv Sena party led by Eknath Shinde. The Thackerays are not part of that one.. “
Still very confused, I ventured a rejoinder trying to make sense of all this. “So Sathe will take on all Thakerays then, including Raj..?!”
“Oh my God, don’t you read the papers?” Now my friend was getting very exasperated with me!
“Raj Thakeray’s MNS is supporting Shinde’s Sena, so they will remain on the same side.. “
After popping an aspirin to ease my spinning head, I ventured a further question.
“Ok, so whatever is happening to the Thakerays, I hope at least the Pawars are all clear and there is no feud amongst them..?”
“Well, things are not that straightforward in Baramati area either. You see, Pawar Sr’s nephew is taking on Pawar Jr’s brother-in-law in one of the constituencies. And in another constituency, Pawar Jr’s other uncle is taking on Pawar Sr’s daughter’s childhood friend..!”
My innocent question, “but when you say Pawar Sr’s cousin or nephew or whatever, won’t they also be Pawar Jr’s some other relative” was met the continuing disdain that he was showing me now!
He just remarked, “you are too naive for all this and you will not understand Maharashtra politics”, almost giving up on trying to explain anything more to me.
And here I was thinking about other simpletons like me who will go to the voting booth not knowing who they are voting for – the party or the candidate or the candidate in a certain party or the candidate who was from a party but is now contesting on another party’s ticket or a last name or a party symbol or what… I hope other voters are not half as confused as I am, when they go out to vote!!
With all that, I ventured one last question to my expert friend, “oh well, anyway, after all this realignment of seats and candidates to accommodate the Mahayuti and Aghadi alliances, many erstwhile party leaders must have lost their seats. I am happy that they have all taken this sportingly and are supporting their own party and alliance respectively…”
“No, no, no, no!”, the friend replied!
All those people who have lost their tickets in this realignment- some 150 of them – are all contesting as independents and will break the votes of their party’s official candidates!!”

Phew! This was the last straw. I figured what is going to be the most popular device on election day. And I am planning to make a business opportunity out of it, by installing this outside all polling booths and letting each voter use it for just Re 1/- before they step in to vote.

That’s an eena-meena-maina-mo machine that one rolls before walking in to vote. Based on whose name comes up, that’s the one you go and vote for!!

The contents above are fictional and written in lighter vein only. Any resemblance to reality however, is intentional and there is nothing coincidental about it!!

Most of us believe that we don’t need to go to a bank branch as everything we need to do, can happen online. And sometimes we even wonder why there are still so many branches of banks.

Well, I might have felt likewise, till recently, I needed to visit bank branches – few times and a few different banks, in fact. There were some personal reasons, but let’s not get into that.

Visiting a bank branch, and especially PSU banks, always leaves me with a lot of thought, a lot of insight about a social strata that we might not fully connect to, or be aware of.

There was this branch of the State Bank of India, in Govandi, Mumbai, that I needed to go to. A few times, recently!

And the visits left me shocked, staggered, humbled..!!

It was a small-sized branch. And from many years back, when I had visited the branch, I remember that the size was adequate.

But so much has changed since then! The branch was ALWAYS packed to the brim, each time I visited recently. There was a queue of people waiting outside and they were being let in, in small numbers, since there was no room for more people to go inside. Of course, India being India, these queues are not respected, so it was a huge crowd, and people jostling to go inside. Like there was some dole being given out and everyone wanted it.
(Well, to an extent, there WAS money from Ladki Bahini being given away, and which was ONE of the reasons for this rush!)

And inside the branch, there was some employee shouting and managing the crowd, asking them to stay quiet, asking them to queue up at the counters, as their numbers came up, and not crowd around! I could have easily mistaken myself to be in some mela or something!

Besides Ladki Bahini, the most common reason why many were coming in, was to get KYC done or have new address registered or a new phone number registered with the bank. These processes still require a personal visit and don’t happen online, I guess, and so many people have the need to do these changes, which explained the massive crowds!

As for the bank officials inside, I was amazed as to how calm they were, in spite of the huge crowds and everyone trying to get their attentions for some information or the other!

At this bank and at another PSU Bank that I had the need to go to, one more thing observed was how there was this one person in the bank who knew the exact processes and who had the longest queues of people at their counter, and who would calmly handle all the individual requests and keep getting work done! These are the critical pieces in the banks working model and who with their knowledge, their meticulousness, their calm ways of working, and their empathy to every customer including those from lower income groups, keep the banks going!

My admiration for these people went up many fold!

Yes, PSU banks or PSU organisations in general, are not particularly well known for their tech or their efficiencies etc. But it is also clear that it is many of these PSUs that keep things going for a very large percentage of Indians, and it happens on account of some of these critical and dedicated workers in the teams!

I had experienced similar dedication from an Air India official long back, when it was still owned by the government of India.

I had had a moving experience that I had shared many years back, from a visit to the Syndicate Bank, and I have had such experiences also at post offices and police stations!

I think all of these places are great to observe an India that we don’t know much of, and to appreciate some of these amazing and hardly recognised folks, who actually keep our big country going!